


Aromatherapy

by navochao



Category: Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushuu | EarthBound
Genre: F/M, M/M, Slow Burn, i swear itll get shippy one day but we have no idea when, modern au where everythings fine and okay because these kids need a break
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-10-24 15:43:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 17,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17707058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navochao/pseuds/navochao
Summary: What it says on the tin. Just some weird "everything is fine" modern au with some slow burn. Oh, also a flower shop.





	1. Monotonous

**Author's Note:**

> Monotonous: Adjective. dull, tedious, and repetitious; lacking in variety and interest.

If there was a prize for being able to consistently fall asleep standing, Ness would probably win it. Every time he was just about to doze off to sleep, Paula walked by him and snapped her fingers in his face or hit a nearby wall with a broom to wake him back up.

 

“You know, I thought that job I had at the burger shop in high school was a boring job,” Ness grabbed the broom from Paula, standing up straight again. “But then I got hired here.”

 

Paula rolled her eyes, walking past Ness back to her spot behind the counter. “Be thankful you have a job at all. Now if you're so insistent on taking the broom, you can sweep up the petals.”

 

Ness groaned before complying, sweeping up the various petals that have decided they had enough of the flower they were attached to, wanting to get set free. Too bad they're going into the garbage instead. “Hey have you ever thought of something to do with the petals that fall off the flowers?”

 

“You mean other than throw them away?”

 

“Yeah, other than that.” Ness looked down at the pile of petals he swept up. “I kinda feel bad for them.”

 

“The petals? It's not our fault they decided to fall off the flower. I guess it was just their time to go.” Paula leaned forward on the counter, looking at the pile of petals Ness was staring at. “Maybe nursing school wasn't the best idea for you if you're now contemplating the meaning and life worth of a flower petal.”

 

“I mean, hey. Look. They’re pretty! But most people prefer them if they're on the flower.”

 

“I don't think you’ve ever actually been to a wedding, then.” Paula laughed. “Flower petals are all over the place.”

  
Ness looked up from the pile of petals “When would I have gone to a wedding?” 

 

“Well you never know. I’ve been to a wedding before.” Paula stopped leaning on the counter “What time do we get off anyway.”

 

Ness shrugged, leaning the broom up against the wall as he replaced it with a dustpan and brush. “Not any time soon, I’m guessing.”

 

“You need to start looking on the bright side of things!” Paula grabbed the broom, moving it out of the way because knowing Ness, he would probably trip on it. “Like, hey, sure life sucks and I’m going to be in debt in a couple years but they’re opening a new burger place downtown.”

 

Ness dumped the flower petals into a trash can behind the counter. “They are?”

 

“Yeah! We should go some time.” 

 

“If only we had free time.” Ness put the dustpan back in it’s home behind the counter. 

 

“If only you had free time.” Paula corrected. “You’ve gotten so boring lately.” 

 

“Lets see… nursing school, work, baseball…” Ness leaned up against the back wall of the store “I don’t think I’m boring, just busy. Maybe you just need more than one friend.” 

 

Paula feigned offense, putting her hand over her heart. “I am hurt, Nestor. How dare you imply that I have no friends.”

 

Ness crossed his arms “I’m not even implying, I’m outright saying you have one singular friend. And it’s me.”

 

“Will you just go check what time we clock out, will you?” Paula guided Ness towards the door leading to the back of the shop. “I want to go hooooome.” 

 

“Fine, fine, whatever.” Ness opened up the door, heading to the back of the flower shop to check the work schedule. As he closed the door to the back, he heard the bell ring to signal that someone had entered the shop. 

 

The back of the flower shop smelt of freshly cut flowers and mildew, but that’s just what you sign up for when you work in a flower shop. There was a table and a fridge in the corner of the room, a microwave sitting safely on top of the fridge, and the weekly work schedule magneted to the the fridge. Ness very slowly walked to the back of the room, checking the schedule for the current day to see when Paula and Ness could actually leave. 1:15. 

 

Ness checked the clock on the wall. It was currently 12:54. God bless America.

 

Ness very slowly walked back to the door, opening it to find no one but an angry Paula left in the shop. Or, at least a mildly annoyed Paula.

 

“Oh, no, really. Take your time.” Her arms were crossed as she pretended to be angry, but her tone of voice showed that she was more annoyed than actually mad.

 

Ness tried his best to keep from laughing as he closed the door behind him. “We get off at 1:15.”

 

Paula pulled out her phone, checking the time. “Well thanks to you being the slowest person on planet Earth, it’s basically already 1:15.” 

 

“See? I do some good things sometimes.” 

 

Paula took off the half apron she wore, throwing it over her arm. “You’re staying out here until we get out of here as punishment for leaving me alone with a very, very frantic man.”

 

Ness was intrigued “Missed birthday?” 

 

“Anniversary.” Paula slightly shoved Ness out of the way so she could reopen the door to the back. “Now sit out here and think about what you’ve done.”

 

“I personally think I did both of us a favor for staying back there.” Ness pointed over her shoulder into the room. "Because I'm usually great help when it comes to frantic people, as we all know."

 

“No, no you really didn’t.” And then Paula shut the door in his face. Great.

 

Lucky for everyone involved, no one else came into the shop, so come 1:15 Paula and Ness were all ready to lock up the shop and get out, with their feet out of the door by 1:20.

 

The two friends walked down the street to go get a quick lunch before Ness had to go to class, Ness complaining about how cold it was the entire way there.

 

“I’m just saying that is abnormally cold,” Ness rubbed his hands together, trying to create warmth. “Even if it is January.” 

 

“And I’m just saying you’re probably cold because you insist on wearing shorts in the middle of January.” Paula looked up at the sky. “The sun is even out, you’re just overly sensitive to cold weather.”

 

Ness shoved his hands back into his pockets. “This has nothing to do with my choice of clothing.”

 

“You’re wearing shorts and a t-shirt in January!” Paula laughed "In what world is that ever a good idea, especially when its this cold."

 

“And a jacket, you fail to point out the jacket.” 

 

Paula looked over at Ness, looking at the jacket he had on. “Yeah, that can barely be considered a jacket. I’m sorry.” 

 

Ness looked down at his jacket, then over at hers “Paula I cannot believe you would just dismiss my jacket like that.”

 

Paula shook her head. “No, you’re basically wearing a long sleeve shirt cut down the middle with a hood attached.”  

 

“Yes, that is what a jacket is.” 

 

“No, that is a sweater!” Paula made a gesture towards Ness, before gesturing at her own jacket. “This is a jacket.” 

 

“A sweater doesn’t have a zipper, Paula. My jacket has a zipper. And pockets.” 

 

“That is not how this works!” 

 

Ness stopped walking in front of the door to turn and face Paula. “Is this truly the hill you’ve chosen to die on?” 

 

“Yes! Yes it is because you are wrong.” Paula opened up the door for them. “If you’re so freezing then get inside so we can eat some food.”

 

Ness held open the door and let Paula walk in. “Good, I’m starving.” 

 

“Well anyone that argues this much ought to be.” 


	2. Excruciating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Excruciating: Adjective. intensely painful.

Ness absolutely hated english, but he needed to take this class for God knows what reason. He always found english classes to be boring and repetitive, and did he mention boring? 

 

He always prefered math, and he did have to take a math class too, but unlike his math class his English Literature class made him want to fall asleep and take a nap every time the professor talked. Ness could never focus on whatever book they were reading, and he didn’t really have time to read it ever. Luckily, Paula had made the suggestion that they listen to the audiobook together at work, and now Paula was suddenly hooked. But suddenly actually being able to understand the book didn’t mean Ness actually liked it. At least Paula could help him understand the hidden meanings in Jane Eyre, or whatever.

 

So when class finally let out, he made a break for home so he could take a nap before he had to go to baseball practice. Always doing something.

 

It wasn’t that far of a walk from the school to the apartment he lived in with Paula, so even though he had a car and could drive it he decided to bear the cold and be eco friendly and walk home.  

 

He got home to find Paula sitting on the couch knitting while watching a cooking show. She paused the TV, turning around to waved at Ness. 

 

“How was literature?”

 

Ness rolled his eyes, closing the door and throwing his jacket at the couch. “Hell, as always.”

 

“That's good,” Paula set her knitting down on the couch, sitting on her knees and resting her head in her hands. “Look on the bright side: only one more semester left.”

 

“Easy for you to say, you like this sort of stuff.” Ness dropped his backpack by the door. “You actually like this stuff.”

 

“Not my fault that I find reading fun, maybe you just need to find the right book.”

 

“Sometimes I think you're an old woman trapped inside a 19 year old.” Ness moved over to the couch, sitting on the arm of it. “You knit, actually enjoy reading…”

 

“Wake up at 6 am,” Paula added, turning and pulling her legs up on the couch. “You’ve exposed me, I am actually just the spirit of an old woman possessing Paula.”

 

Ness laughed “Well you make Paula interesting, so you can stay in there if you want.”

 

“Hey!” Paula reached for something to throw, but nothing was in reach, so she just crossed her arms and pouted. “For the record, knitting is the only thing that gets me through your baseball games.”

 

“That's fair, I can barely get through them myself half the time.” Ness dropped onto the couch, facing Paula. 

 

“Speaking of baseball, when does the season start anyway?” 

 

Ness thought for a moment “Some time in the middle of February I think.”

 

“You don't know?”

 

“Well, I can see in my head when it starts. Doesn't mean I’m fully aware of it.”

 

“Work’s gonna be so boring without you there,” Paula frowned, pulling her legs off of the couch and standing up. “Apparently Lydia has an idea of who’s going to be your temporary replacement, but I haven't met them yet.”

 

“You’ll be fine, you barely can deal with me being there.”

 

“There's a fine line between me enjoying your presence and me not, and you usually operate perfectly in the middle there.” Paula picked up her knitting, putting it back into the bag she kept it in. “Usually.”

 

“Coach wanted to make me a designated hitter this season…” Ness watched Paula put her knitting away “I haven’t actually told him yes or no.”

 

“Well why not?” Paula picked up her bag of knitting, turning to face Ness. “Do you want to, or not?”

 

Ness just shrugged, slouching a bit. “I’m not sure, honestly. It’s not like I don’t like batting, I just don’t want to be doing nothing for a majority of some games, you know?”

 

“Well he must think you’re a good batter. But if he’s giving you the option and you wanna stay catcher, then do that. Follow your dreams.” 

 

“My dreams are to be done with baseball.” Ness said matter of factly. “That and graduate, but I’m only really graduating to be done with baseball.”

 

“You might want to aim a little higher than that, Ness.” Paula walked away from the couch, moving over to the kitchen to set her knitting on the table. “Like, after you’re done with baseball. What do you want to do?”

 

“A nap might be good.” Ness looked over the back of the couch. “Oh, or some steak! Or…” Ness thought about it, drawing a blank “I don’t know, honestly.”

 

“Well you should figure it out some time soon.” She paused for a moment, “I guess you don’t really have to figure it out all that soon, but you should at least try and think about it. You can’t just impulse enroll yourself in nursing school and expect everything to work out all fine and dandy.”

 

Ness turned around, facing the TV again, still paused on the same cooking show Paula was watching earlier. “I actually wanted to enroll in nursing school, thank you very much. This time it wasn’t an impulse decision”  

 

“Then I suggest you start thinking and worrying about being a nurse, not a baseball player.” 

 

“I’ll stop worrying about baseball when it stops paying for my school.” 

 

“If it worries you why do you do it?”

 

Ness didn’t respond, because he didn’t really have an answer to her question.

 

Ness heard Paula sigh before walking out of the room, presumably taking her knitting with her. Ness considered actually looking up the baseball schedule, or maybe emailing his coach to tell him that he would rather play catcher instead of designated hitter, but he just had no energy or motivation to actually grab his computer from his backpack. He ended up unpausing the TV, falling asleep on the couch while watching some cooking show he had never heard of before.


	3. Awkward

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awkward: Adjective. causing or feeling embarrassment or inconvenience.

It was pretty boring working in a flower shop in January. Things tended to get more and more hectic starting at the end of January leading up to February, though, with people calling in to ask about flowers ahead of time for all their lovey dovey Valentines day needs. So Paula had been permanently glued to the phone all day while Ness organized all the orders as she wrote them down.

 

Ness was leaning up against the counter, rewriting and copying down orders on cards when the bell sounded, signalling that the door had opened.

 

Paula was still on the phone with someone, so Ness slid the cards he was writing on to the side and looked up at the person who had just walked in, ready to do his job for once and help them.

 

A boy just about the same age as Ness and Paula was standing in front of the door, wearing a pretty light jacket, dress pants, and tennis shoes, which Ness thought was an odd combo but worked surprisingly well. He had blonde hair that fell over half of his glasses, which made Ness wonder if he could even see, and he was pretty pale.  

 

“Uhh, hello.” The boy waved at Ness. He spoke with an accent, which let Ness know automatically that he was not actually from around here, but even then, Ness couldn’t actually pin down what the accent was or where it was from.  

 

Ness blinked a couple of times “Oh, uh. Hey. Welcome.”

 

Paula looked between the two boys while she finished up the order she was taking, tapping her fingers on the side of the phone. As she finished up the order, she slid the card over to Ness to rewrite it as a proper order, before hanging up the phone and turning to the boy, putting on her best customer service smile. “Hello, how can I help you?”

 

The boy didn’t even notice that Paula had talked to him for a couple of seconds before he quickly turned to her. “Y-yeah, uh. I wanted to,” he gestured to a bunch of flowers, hoping that Paula would understand what he was trying to say. He was very awkward.

 

“Of course, is there a specific reason you’re getting them? Or are you just getting them to have them?” Paula reached for a blank card, and a business card for the store, setting them both on the counter in front of her.

 

“Right, well,” the boy looked at the flowers around the store “I guess just to have them?”

 

“Sounds good to me,” Paula tossed the order card to the side, pointing over the counter at a bunch of lilacs. “Lilacs are always good to keep around. In my opinion, anyway.”

 

The boy followed where Paula was pointing, looking at the lilacs. “Oh, okay.”

 

“Those sound good?” Paula walked around the counter, towards the lilacs. “How many do you think you want?”

 

“Just a couple,” The boy looked back and forth between Paula and Ness.

 

Every time the boy looked back at Ness, he dropped his gaze back to what he was working on. Why did he keep staring? He nearly messed up the order card he was working on.

 

Paula picked a few lilacs, bringing them back to the counter and pulling out some scissors and paper. “What made you want to get flowers?”

 

The boy focused his attention back on Paula. “My dad used to keep flowers around his lab, so I thought I could just. Get some flowers, I guess.”

 

“That makes sense” Paula cut the bottom of the lilacs stems, wrapping the flowers up in some plastic before wrapping all of that up in some paper. “Here you go, let me just get the total real quick.” Paula punched some things into the cash register, ending up with a total. “Fifteen dollars.”

 

The boy pulled out a wallet, handing Paula a twenty dollar bill.

 

“Thank you.” Paula handed him back five dollars, and the flowers. “Have a nice day.”

 

The boy smiled, but looked over at Ness when he said “You too.”

 

Ness didn’t seem to notice, too busy trying not to look at him and focus on the orders, so the boy awkwardly waved goodbye to Paula, then turned around and left the shop.

 

“Oh my God,” Paula said as the door closed behind the boy. “You think he’s cute don’t you.”

 

“What?” Ness looked down at the cards he was rewriting, avoiding eye contact. “I do not.”

 

“Uh, yeah, you do. You were staring at him the entire time-” The phone in the corner rang again. “Oh you have got to be kidding me. Do you wanna take over the phone?”

 

Ness shook his head, picking up a pen and continuing what he was doing. “I’ll pass. You’re doing a great job.”

 

“Talking on the phone is so draining though,” Paula picked up the phone, her voice perking up as soon as she answered it “Thanks for calling The Bloom Room my name is Paula how can I help you?” Paula shot Ness a look of disappointment and despair as she picked up another order card and her pen, responding to the person on the other end with “Yes, we do sell flowers.” before mouthing ‘We’re not done talking.’ at Ness.

 

Ness tried his best to hold back his laughter, giving Paula a sympathetic smile as he went back to work on the dang order cards.

 

Ness couldn’t stop thinking about the boy who walked into the shop earlier. Why was he staring at him the entire time? He could barely focus on these orders, too busy thinking about what Paula had said. Did he really find that mystery boy that just wanted to buy some flowers cute? No, that couldn’t be it. Or, rather, it shouldn’t be.

 

He was torn away from his thoughts when he heard the phone click and saw Paula slide another order card in his pile.

 

“So, you’re sure you didn’t think he was cute?” Paula continued to tease him.

 

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure.”

 

Paula frowned, looking over his shoulder at the cards he was supposed to be working on. “You good? Somethings up.”

 

After a moment, Ness responded “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.”

 

“Do you need help with the cards? I can file them if you-”

 

Ness interrupted her “No, I’m fine. Thanks Paula.” He smiled at her, scribbling down something on the cards. “Is there a specific reason you decided to suggest lilacs?”

 

Paula smirked, picking the parts of the stems Paula cut off earlier and tossing them into the garbage. “No, just the first thing I thought of.”

 

“Right,” Ness finally finished up the card he was working on, moving it to the pile of finished cards. “Convenient.”  

 

“I hope he comes back in here,” Paula continued. “You need more friends.”

 

“What are you going to do if I make a new friend?”

 

“I’ll keep tagging along until you get tired of me.”

 

“I can’t get tired of you,” Ness looked over at her “Now help me write these cards.”

 

Paula grabbed her pen, picking up one of the cards from Ness’ pile “I thought you said you didn’t need help.”

 

“That was two minutes ago, this is now. Two minutes ago I didn’t need help.”

 

Paula rolled her eyes, beginning to transfer the information from the stock card to an actual order form. “You need all the help you can get.”


	4. Impulsive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Impulsive: Adjective. acting or done without forethought.

In all honesty, Jeff Andonuts was not planning on bringing home a bunch of flowers. He didn’t even think he owned a vase to put the flowers in, but now was a good of a time as any to buy one. He had gotten the address of the post office wrong, and had accidentally walked into a flower shop. So now he had flowers and no package. And he still didn’t know where the post office was. 

 

One he reached his apartment he opened the door, nearly dropping the flowers as he did, and had to slam the door shut with his foot. 

 

“You don’t need to announce your entrance like that,” Jeff heard his roommates voice say from the kitchen, where he was probably hiding. “A hello is good enough.”

 

“Hey, Tony do we have a vase?” 

 

There was a pause. “Probably not, why?” 

 

Jeff walked over to the kitchen, setting the flowers he bought on the counter. “Well, I impulse bought flowers.”

 

Tony stared down at the flowers Jeff had just set down, looking back up at him with a confused look on his face. “Question. How do you impulse buy flowers?” 

 

Jeff shrugged instead of answering, going back to his previous question. “So is that a no on the vase?” 

 

“I literally just said- okay you know what? We can fix this. One time flowers, so we’ll just cut the stems short and put them in a drinking glass. Problem solved.”

 

“It’s uh… probably not a one time thing.” Jeff said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ll probably end up going back.”

 

Tony narrowed his eyes, looking at the flowers to the way Jeff was acting. “Oh my God you like someone that works there thats why you impulse bought flowers.”

 

“Shut up I do not, I just appreciate flowers!”

 

“Jeff I’ve known you for way longer than most people should know each other, you do not appreciate flowers.” Tony gestured to the flowers. “You impulse bought there because of a cute guy.”

 

Jeff sighed, admitting defeat over the flowers.“Okay fine, but I appreciate flowers now because of the flower shop a couple streets over.”

 

“Well, do you know their name?” 

 

Jeff thought for a moment. “N-No.”

 

“Well step one is finding out their name. Step two is finding out if they’re single. Step three? Profit.” Tony held up one finger, then two, then three. 

 

Jeff laughed, grabbing some scissors out of a drawer only to set them down on the counter while he grabbed a glass. “I guess I could always go back there…”

 

Tony clapped his hands together, leaning up against the kitchen counter “There we go! Okay, game plan. First, you have to get his phone number and his name.”

 

“I could barely buy the flowers! And I wasn't even talking to him!” Jeff groaned, beginning to cut the stems to fit inside the glass. “How am I supposed to ask for his phone number?”

 

“How about, and I know this is a crazy idea but here me out,” Tony began to pick up the parts of the stems that Jeff was cutting off. “Just go in there and ask him for his number.”

 

“That is a crazy idea, you're right.” Jeff put the flowers in the glass. “This looks incredibly silly.”

 

“The flowers?” Tony picked up the glass, putting some water in it so the flowers wouldn't die in two hours. “I think they look fine. Why these ones?”

 

Jeff watched Tony set the flowers down on the counter. “The girl that sold them to me told me to get them.”

 

“I see,” Tony looked at them. “What are they?”

 

“Lilacs.”

 

“Lilacs? Okay.” Tony thought for a moment. “So there was two people in there?”

 

Jeff nodded. He didn’t really like where this was going. 

 

“Okay, ask her for his number then.” Tony picked up the glass full of flowers, moving it by the kitchen sink. “If you can’t talk to him, text him instead.”

 

“I don’t think she’ll just give it to me.” Jeff walked over to the pantry, pulling out a strawberry pop tart. “Doesn’t sound like a safe business practice, just handing out phone numbers.” 

 

“Well you have to tell me what he looks like at the very least, or I’m going down there myself right now to get his number for you.”

 

Jeff snorted, opening up the pop tart wrapper, taking one out and handing it to Tony. “Uh, curly black hair. Kinda short, I think? Was wearing a worn out baseball cap. I don’t know, he was standing behind a counter.”

 

“Kinda short you think?” Tony ripped the pop tart he was handed in half, taking a bite out of one half. “Was it like, a depth perception thing where you just couldn’t tell because of how far away he was? Or was it because of the fact he was standing behind the counter.”

 

Jeff took a bite out of the corner of his pop tart. “Why are you picking apart my description?” 

 

“I want to be able to see this person in my mind, Jeff, and your description isn’t working. I’m going with you to there once those flowers die,” Tony pointed over to the lilacs sitting by the sink. “We’re also going to buy a vase.”

 

“Oh so now you’re on board with the impulsive flower purchase,” Jeff took another bite of the pop tart, “Why do you buy these things?”

 

“The best part about America is the amount of junk food they sell as breakfast foods,” Tony said, holding up the half pop tart he hadn’t taken a bite out of yet.

 

Jeff squinted at the pop tart in his hand. “These are supposed to be for breakfast?”

 

“Yeah, apparently. I wish I could have these for breakfast growing up.” Tony took another bite. “I’m never leaving America.”

 

Jeff shook his head. “You have fun, I think I prefer my breakfast without cavities.” Even so, he still took another bite of the pop tart, seemingly fulling intending to finish it. 

 

For the rest of the day, Jeff couldn’t get the boy from the flower shop out of his head. It was starting to get annoying, but he couldn’t tell if that was because he didn’t know his name or because he couldn’t seem to think about anything else. Doesn’t help that now he had lilacs sitting in the kitchen, a semi-permanent reminder about the whole ordeal. He nearly left to go back to the shop to find out his name, but by the time he really considered it the boy had probably already gone home. So Jeff either needed to stalk the flower shop until he saw the boy again, or needed to wait until the lilacs wilted. 

 

Jeff wasn’t a fan of either of those options.

 

So he was stuck with a drinking glass full of lilacs and no idea who the boy that made him buy the lilacs was. Jeff found himself trying to figure out what kind of person he was based off the five minutes he saw him. He probably liked baseball, which was a problem, because Jeff was incredibly British and had no idea how baseball worked. From what Jeff remembered, which wasn’t a lot, he wasn’t wearing a t-shirt with any graphics on it, so that was no help. He really didn’t have anything to go off of. 

 

And it was so annoying that he couldn’t stop thinking about him. He only saw him for five minutes, probably less, and really could have only had an ‘oh no, he’s hot’ moment before awkwardly buying flowers because he couldn’t admit that he was painfully foreign and lost. Why own up to your mistakes when you can just buy $15 worth of flowers!

 

“Wait.” Jeff said, which startled Tony.

 

“Wait for what, exactly? It? Half Life 3? Marriage?”

 

“What- oh nevermind.” Jeff sat up a bit, looking over at Tony. “I bought the flowers because I walked into the wrong store looking for the post office.”

 

Tony wasn’t exactly following, more confused than enlightened to Jeff’s great idea. “Yes, and?”

 

“I never actually found the post office,” Jeff made a gesture with his hand, hoping Tony would get it. He didn’t. “I can go in there tomorrow and ask them where the post office was.”

 

“Oh! And get his number!” 

 

“Yes! Exactly!” 

 

“Great!” Tony clapped, giving Jeff a thumbs up. “Tomorrow, we go get a package and a cute boys phone number.” 

 

“And a vase?” Jeff suggested.

 

Tony crossed his arms. “No more flowers until those lilacs back there have decomposed.” 

 

“Fine with me.” 


	5. Surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise: Noun. an unexpected or astonishing event, fact, or thing.

The next day, after Tony got home from class, the two set out on a quest to go find the post office. And also maybe get a cute boys phone number.

 

Jeff could barely remember where he had found the flower shop, and he couldn’t remember the name, so they had to ask someone for directions to the flower shop, only for them to stand awkwardly outside of it for five minutes.

 

“We could have just asked for directions to the post office from that person,” Jeff was leaning up against the flower shop, next to the door. “Instead of having to go in here and ask them.”

 

“Nope, come on. We have to find the post office eventually.” Tony grabbed his arm, opening the door and dragging him inside. 

 

The bell rang again, and Jeff immediately felt like he was about to die. But looking at the counter, there was only the blonde girl that had helped him out the day before.

 

“Welcome back, did you already kill the flowers you bought?”

 

“Uh, no,” Jeff looked over at Tony, who had gone to look around at some of the flowers while Jeff was stuck melting into a puddle of awkwardness. “I need to uh. Post office.”

 

“This is a flower shop, not a post office.” The girl pointed at the giant mural of a sunflower field painted on the wall behind her. “My name is Paula, what's about yours?”

 

“Jeff.” Jeff looked over at Tony. “We uh. Got lost. Looking for the post office. Do you know where it is?”

 

Paula tapped a pen against the counter. “Well it depends, which post office are you looking for?”

 

“UPS.” Jeff thought for a moment. “Wait, is it?”

 

“Well there’s a UPS down the street a bit,” Paula pointed to her left with the pen. “Say, let me write down the directions for you.”

 

“That would be a lot of help, thanks.” 

 

Jeff watched as Paula pulled out a notepad, scribbling some stuff down on it before folding it up and handing it to him over the counter. “Are you just visiting?”

 

“Huh?” Jeff took the piece of paper, putting it in his pocket. 

 

“The US. You’re obviously not from here, are you just visiting?” Paula leaned up against the counter, placing her elbows on the counter and resting her head in her hands. 

 

“Oh, uh. We go to school here.” Jeff vaguely pointed in the direction he thought his school was. 

 

“We’re extremely British,” Tony announced from the other side of the room. “But you have good junk food here, so I’m staying.”

 

“Yeah, we’re kind of known for that.” Paula shrugged. “Why not go to a school in Europe though? Wanted to go into debt in with a change of scenery?” 

 

Tony snorted, crossing his arms. “It was Jeff’s idea, not mine. Stating that one for the record.”

 

Jeff turned and shot his friend a glare, before turning back to Paula “Well I hate to bother you more, so I think we’re going to go and find the post office now. Thank you, by the way.”

 

Paula laughed, standing up straight again as she waved goodbye. “Oh, any time. You’re always welcome back in here, you make my life interesting.” 

 

Just as the two boys left the flower shop and walked down the street, another young boy emerged from the back room of the flower shop.

 

“Wimp,” Paula looked over at Lucas as he shut the door behind him. 

 

“I’m not even supposed to be here until three thirty,” Lucas picked up the broom and began sweeping the floor. “I don’t want to deal with Ness’ rom-com drama while working overtime.” 

 

“If I have to suffer, you have to suffer too.” Paula pulled out her phone, checking the time again. “So, what time is Kumatora getting here?”

 

“Three, but you get off at two forty five.” 

 

“Wow you really looked at all the facts while you were hiding out back there,” 

 

“No, I wrote the schedule. Kumatora’s handwriting is basically chicken scratch.” 

 

“Oh I didn’t realize I should go to you for all my scheduling needs,” Paula rolled her eyes, beginning to tap her pen on the counter again. “Y’know, things got a lot more interesting here as soon as Ness had that gay crisis.”

 

“Paula it’s been one day how do you even know if he had a gay crisis. Knowing Ness it might have just been a panic attack.” Lucas moved all the dust and flower petals he swept up behind the counter before taking out the dustpan and sweeping it all up. 

 

Paula picked up the trash can, holding it out for Lucas “No trust me it was a gay crisis. It was a mutual gay crisis.”

 

Lucas dumped the dustpan into the trash. “God I wish that were me.”

 

“Having a gay crisis? Or having a gay crisis over Ness?”

 

“The first one.” Lucas took the trash can from Paula, putting it back in the cupboard under the counter with the dustpan. “Ness is cool and all, but I don’t think I could have a gay crisis over him.”

 

“That’s a lie, and I know that because Kumatora told me that you had a gay crisis when Ness got hired, so shut up.”

 

“Kumatora is a habitual liar and we both know it.” 

 

“Okay but still, Paula heard the phone ring behind her. “Your turn.”

 

“I hate you so much.” Lucas walked past her, picking up the phone.

 

“No you don’t.” Paula took out an order card, sliding it down the counter to Lucas along with her pen. 

  
  


Jeff and Tony were staring at the piece of paper that Paula had given them, following the directions which led them right to the post office they were looking for. 

 

“How did you get lost looking for this place if it was two blocks down?” Tony asked after Jeff came back out of the post office, carrying the package he was supposed to pick up yesterday.

 

“I put in the wrong address, I didn’t get lost.” Jeff readjusted his grip on the package, continuing down the street. “Don’t antagonize me.”

 

“Oh I’m going to antagonize you all the way to Christmas.” Tony took another look at the piece of paper with the directions on it. “By the way, the person you say in the flower shop the other day? His name is probably Ness.” 

 

Jeff nearly tripped over his own surprise. “Excuse me?”

 

“There’s a phone number at the bottom of this piece of paper that says ‘Call Ness’ right above it.” Tony held up the piece of paper, before pocketing it again. “You’re too blind and oblivious, so I needed to point it out.”

 

“I’m sorry I cared more about this package than a phone number, then.” Jeff looked down at the package. “I wish I knew what was in this.”

 

“Wait, you don’t know what it is? What if it’s a bomb?” 

 

Jeff tried to defend himself. “It’s from Dr. Andonuts!”

 

“My point still stands.” Tony looked the package over, as if he himself were US customs. “What did you dad send you?”

 

“I don’t know,” Jeff tried his best to shrug, which was hard to do while carrying a semi-large package. “Why are you asking me?” 

 

“Well obviously he had to tell you that he sent it for you to know it was at the post office.”

 

“He just told me he sent me a package.”

 

“Okay then, guess we’re opening that when we get home. But if our apartment burns down I’m blaming you.” Tony said matter of factly. 

 

“Can’t we just blame Dr. Andonuts?” 

 

Tony shook his head “Nope. We always blame Dr. Andonuts, I think it’s time for us to move on.”

 

“You’re no fun.” Jeff pouted, readjusting his grip on the package yet again.

 

Tony laughed “Of course I’m not, I’m the one that makes good decisions.” 


	6. Forget

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forget: Verb. fail to remember.

Ness was laying on his bed, with his feet on his pillow, staring up at the ceiling. He was technically sick, but that didn’t keep him from feeling bad about spending the entire day in bed. Save for the 10 minutes he spent in the kitchen microwaving soup.

 

Then he heard his phone, which had since fallen on the floor, alert him to a new message.

 

Lo and behold, an unknown number had texted him.

 

**Are you Ness?**

 

**Depends. Who’s asking?**

 

**Uh, Paula gave me this number.**

 

Well that certainly didn’t answer any questions. In fact, it asked even more!

 

**Well that’s creepy.**

**But yeah, I’m Ness.**

 

**My name is Jeff.**

**I’m the one who bought lilacs yesterday.**

 

Oh goddamnit, Paula.

 

                                    **Oh. Sup.**

**Sorry for being so awkward.**

**That’s just who I am.**

 

**Same here.**

**Uh, the thing about being sorry for being awkward.**

**Not.**

**Actually never mind.**

 

Did Ness legitimately laugh at that? He couldn’t believe it himself. Maybe it was a good thing that Paula decided to hand his phone number out to strangers.

 

      **So you said your name is Jeff?**

 

**Yup.**

**Jeff Andonuts.**

 

**Wait, like the scientist?**

**God wait never mind you probably get that all the time.**

 

**I do, but it’s okay.**

**Yeah. He’s my dad.**

 

**That’s so cool.**

**I don’t have any cool parents.**

 

**Well I wouldn’t call him cool.**

**But yeah, I guess he’s pretty well known.**

 

**So what are you doing in America?**

**It’s pretty boring around here, besides the politics.**

 

**You’ve found me out.**

**I’m only here to watch this place burn down first hand.**

 

**Good idea.**

**So if your Doctor Andonuts’ son, does that mean you’re British?**

 

**As my roommate would put it, yes. Painfully British.**

 

**That’s so cool.**

 

**Is it really?**

 

**Yeah!**

**I don’t really meet people from other countries too often.**

**I mean. I do.**

**I live in California of course I do.**

**I’m being stupid.**

 

**I don’t think you’re being stupid.**

**I’ve definitely meet a lot more people from other countries.**

**Because I can just. Go there.**

 

**How many countries have you been to?**

 

**Including America and England, 15.**

 

**Fifteen?? I’ve been to one!**

 

 **America, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland,** **France, Germany,  
Italy, Japan, Egypt, Brazil, Sweden, ** **Mexico, Russia, and Belgium.**

 

**Holy shit.**

 

**My dad gets invited a lot of places.**

**And me and a couple of friends went to France on holiday once.**

**(I think our Disneyland is better than yours.)**

 

**As an American, I am contractually obligated to be offended.**

 

**That’s fair.**

**But Disneyland Paris? Amazing.**

 

**Wait you’ve also been to Japan.**

**Did you also go to Tokyo Disney?**

 

**Yeah, but I didn’t understand anything.**

**I don’t speak Japanese.**

 

**Wait do you speak more than one language?**

 

**English, French, and a small bit of terrible German.**

 

**!!  
                                                                                                                        Je parle français aussi!**

 

**Oh diable! C'est génial.**

 

**I’m not the best, so don’t expect fluency or anything.**

 

**I grew up learning French and English at the same time.**

**I like to think I can hold a conversation well.**

 

**Spoiler alert: you won’t use it here very much.**

 

**Yeah, I’ve noticed.**

**I’ve heard a lot of Spanish.**

**It’s kind of similar, but not exactly.**

 

**Spanish is French if Italian decided to eat it.**

 

**...Interesting.**

**Do you speak Spanish?**

 

**Not one bit.**

**I’m not actually from California.**

 

**Oh?**

 

**Yeah, I moved down here with Paula to go to school here.**

 

**Oh! Interesting.**

**Same story, here.**

**My friend and I both moved here for school from England.**

 

**What are you studying?**

**If that’s. Not a weird question.**

 

**It’s not weird.**

**Chemical Engineering.**

**As one would expect from the son of Doctor Andonuts.**

**You?**

 

**Nursing.**

**I don’t know why, but.**

**It’s something.**

 

**Nursing is interesting!**

**Probably more useful than chemical engineering.**

 

**Hah, not really.**

**You go engineer those chemicals.**

**(That’s how that works right?)**

 

**Not quite.**

**Nice try though.**

 

Before Ness could reply, he heard the front door open and Paula's voice ring through the apartment, telling Ness that she was home. He quickly threw his phone across the room before Paula could walk into his room, which she did inevitably do.

 

“Hey, feeling better?” Paula opened up the door, before stopping in the doorway to stare at Ness’ awkward position. “Why are you laying like that?”

 

“Uhh.” Ness sat up, letting his legs hang off the side of his bed. “No reason.”

 

“So are you feeling better?”

 

Ness nodded. “Yeah, way. How was work?”

 

“Oh, you know. Lucas gave me the death glare the entire time because he doesn’t like getting called in for overtime.” Paula shrugged, as if to say ‘what can you do’. “I know he knows that he doesn’t have to work the overtime. And I’m pretty sure he knows that I know. So now we’re locked in a war of us not saying anything about it for as long as we can before one of us breaks.”

 

Ness laughed. Two for one today. “You are so weird.”

 

“Yeah, that’s why we’re friends.” Paula stuck out her tongue, which Ness did in return. “So pizza tonight? Unless you’re suddenly up for cooking.”

 

“Pizza works.” Ness did not feel like cooking. “I’m glad you’ve stopped trying to cook after you nearly started a fire. Shame it took that for you to realize that cooking was probably not for you.”

 

“Hey, I didn’t have to come check up on you you know. I could have left you lying there all day. Now get up, we’re going to watch HGTV and eat burnt popcorn until you feel better.”

 

“Paula I feel fine.”

 

“Nope. Get up. HGTV time.” Paula entered the room, only to take Ness’ arm and drag him out of his room.

 

Ness totally forgot about his phone on the other side of his room until they had been watching TV for a couple hours, while they were eating pizza on the couch. He nearly burned his tongue when he remembered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> French Translations:  
> Ness says "I speak French too!"  
> Jeff says "Oh heck! That's awesome!


	7. Guilt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guilt: Noun. a feeling of having done wrong or failed in an obligation.

Jeff had never stared at his phone longer than he had that day. The package he had gotten from Dr. Andonuts was left completely forgotten by the front door as Jeff laid on the couch, glancing over at his phone every couple of seconds. 

 

Tony had been looking at him over the edge of the couch four a couple of minutes. “Jeff.”

 

Jeff stared at his phone again.

 

“Jeff oh my God I’m sure you’re overreacting.” Tony reached over the couch, taking the phone from Jeff’s hand. “Mine. You can’t have it until later, this is a problem.”

 

“I don’t think I’m overreacting, frankly.” Jeff sat up, looking at Tony. “It had to be something I said.”

 

“Or maybe he had something to do. Or maybe his phone died.”

 

Jeff raised an eyebrow “For an hour?”

 

“Maybe he doesn’t have a charger!”

 

“Tony.”

 

“Jeff.”

 

Jeff flopped back down on the couch. “I’m hopeless.”

 

“Hey, you said it, not me.” Tony walked over to the door, picking up the package and moving it over to the couch, setting it by Jeff’s head. “Open it.”

 

“Do I have to?”

 

“Yes! Your dad sent it to you, meaning he had to at least pick something out to send to you, or go to a post office, or something. He had to do something.” Tony pushed it towards Jeff some more. “Something is better than nothing.”

 

Jeff shook his head. “Not with Dr. Andonuts.” 

 

Tony frowned, walking over to the kitchen to grab a knife, returning to the package and cutting open the tape. “Okay look. I did the hard part for you.”

 

“Then do the rest, please and thank you.”

 

“Nope. Come on.” Tony kicked the couch. “Get up. Open the damn package, Jeff.”

 

“And what happens if I don't?”

 

“I won’t give you your phone back.”

 

Jeff growled, sitting up and opening up the cardboard box at his feet. “Cruel.” 

 

“I know.” Tony sat down on the floor, looking into the box. “So what’s in here anyway? I’ve been curious since you told me it was from your dad.”

 

“I don’t know, I just got a call from Dr. Andonuts that said he sent a package for me to the post office or something.” Jeff looked inside the box to find two other boxes inside, wrapped with red and green wrapping paper. “Huh?”

 

“They look like Christmas presents, Jeff.” Tony looked up at him, gesturing for him to take out the boxes. 

 

“It’s almost February.” Jeff took out one of the boxes, looking it over. 

 

Tony rolled his eyes. “It has to clear customs. He’s still in England.” 

 

Jeff ignored Tony, instead tearing the wrapping paper off the present to find another box. “He sure is making this difficult to be interested in.”

 

“Damnit, Jeff. Just open the box.”

 

And he did just that, opening the box to find a bunch of… food? “He sent me food.”

 

“Huh?” Tony stood up, looking into the box. “He didn’t just send you food, he sent you British food.” 

 

That he did. Inside the box was a bunch of British snacks inside of the box. “Interesting.”

 

“Just interesting? C’mon, this is amazing. We haven’t been there in years. I’m actually excited for this. If you don’t want it, I do.”

 

“Hey, hands off my food.” Jeff set the box to the side. “I mean, I’m just surprised I guess. That he just sent this stuff.”

 

“Well there’s one more box.” Tony gestured back down to the package at his feet. “Did he send you more food, or did he send you something else.”

 

“Only one way to find out I guess.” Jeff reached into the box, pulling out the second box and tearing off the wrapping paper again, to be left with an iPad box. “What?”

 

Tony stared down at the box wide eyed “I think your dad just bought you an iPad, Jeff.”

 

“But why? Why would he buy my an iPad?”

 

“I don’t know, because you’re his son?”

 

Jeff looked up at Tony, glaring at him. “Does he want me to call him and act like everything's okay? Because everything is not okay!”

 

“Okay but maybe he wants to actually fix things?” Tony gestured around them. “Like, someone that doesn’t care doesn’t just send this stuff to America.”

 

“I don’t think this is how you do that.” Jeff threw the wrapping paper into the box at his feet, kicking it away from him. “Give me my phone back, I need to tell him thanks.”

 

Tony handed Jeff his phone back. “I’m just saying you can’t hate him forever.”

 

“Oh, I can and I will.” Jeff unlocked his phone, staring at it for a bit while he tried to figure out what the hell to even type. 

 

Tony moved the stuff to the side, sitting on the couch next to Jeff. “Hey, look. I know you don’t like your dad, but he’s obviously trying. At least give him that.”

 

“He’s a lying coward and I don’t think I can give him much other than that.” Eventually Jeff figured out what to say, sending a thank you text that looked both way too long and way too short at the same time.

 

“Whatever you say,” Tony picked up the cardboard box, moving it back over to the front door. “Please don’t just stare at your phone for another hour. Eat something. Your dad set us up for life.”

 

“More like a month, with how much junk you eat.” Jeff rolled his eyes, setting down his phone as he moved the box of snacks to the kitchen. “You can stick to your pop tarts, since you love American food so much.”

 

“Oh, so you like the gift?”

 

Jeff looked down at the food, then over at the couch. “Yeah. I never said I didn’t. Just that I don’t like him.”

 

Tony sighed, accepting defeat. “Progress, I guess.”


	8. Happy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy: Adjective. feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.

When Ness was finally freed from pizza and HGTV (which, without the context of his panic to run back to his room, would be an amazing time that he wouldn't actually want to be freed from), he ran back to his room to go retrieve his phone from the floor where had he thrown it earlier. He didn't have any other missed messages, but the last thing Jeff had said had been five hours ago.

God, he was royally screwed.

 

**Hey, sorry about. Dying.**

**Roommate came home.**

**We watched some home improvement stuff.**

**And ate pizza.**

 

And there wasn't a reply for a bit, which was understandable. It wasn't late, it was only about 8:30, but still. People had lives. Or, so he had heard. He wasn’t actually expecting a reply. Especially after he just ignored him for five hours.

 

He just about up and went back to the living room to continue watching terrible TV when he heard another notification.

 

**It’s fine, had to do some stuff anyway.**

**Was the pizza good?**

 

Oh thank God.

 

**Yeah, all things considered.**

**What have you been doing?**

 

**Well I made dinner.**

**Which makes it sound like I can cook.**

**Hypothetically, I can but in practice not so much.**

**Anyway that's not what you asked um.**

**Yeah. Made dinner.**

 

**I’m sure it was better than delivery pizza.**

 

**Probably not.**

**Tried making lasagna.**

**Roommate wasn't impressed.**

 

**So your roommate is also from Britain?**

 

**Yeah! We grew up together.**

**It was actually his idea to both go to America for school.**

**My original plan was the Netherlands, but.**

**Obviously that one didn’t work out.**

 

**Well I’d like to think you made a good decision.**

**Or your roommate did.**

 

**Yeah, I do too.**

 

Ness couldn't help but have another panic over that message. There was a 99.99% chance it wasn't about him. But that didn't mean that .01% wasn't still there.

 

**What made you want to leave Britain?**

**If you don't mind me asking.**

 

**Full of questions, are we Ness?**

**I don't even know your last name, and you have all this knowledge about me.**

**Maybe I should ask you some questions.**

 

**Go ahead.**

 

**Well, what's your last name?**

 

**Sopre.**

 

**Ness Sopre. Interesting.**

 

**Just about as interesting as Jeff Andonuts.**

 

**You have no idea how many times I was offered “an donut”.**

**It's not even grammatically correct. That bugged me more than the teasing did.**

 

**No one could ever pronounce my last name.**

 

**Something is telling me it isn't “soap”.**

 

**More like “su pray”.**

 

**I would have never guessed that.**

 

**That's fair.**

 

**I’ve never heard the name Ness before. Is it short for anything?**

 

**Nestor.**

**It’s. Such a bad name.**

**I know.**

 

**I like it.**

 

**You do?**

 

**Yeah!** **  
** **Nestor Sopre.**

 

**Jeff Andonuts.**

 

**Your name is better.**

 

**I can't name a famous person with my last name.**

 

**I wouldn't really call Dr. Andonuts famous.**

 

**Well at least one person  in America has heard of him.**

 

**I don't know how.**

 

**We learned about him in chemistry.**

**High school science.**

 

**Really??**

 

**Yeah, our teacher was a huge fan.**

**But it was also just part of the stuff we needed to learn.**

**You can ask Paula. We had the same chem teacher.**

**Well, kind of.**

 

**Kind of?**

 

**She took AP. I just took regular old chemistry.**

 

**What’s AP?**

 

**Uh, advanced placement. It’s a college level version of the class,** **  
** **and you take a test at the end of the year.**

**And stuff.**

**I only ever took AP Calc, but.**

**Paula took all kinds of crazy classes because she's an  
overachiever.**

 

**Oh.**

**I’ve never heard of that before.**

**That’s cool.**

 

**I guess so.**

 

**So, do you like working at a flower shop?**

 

**Yeah, I guess so.**

**It’s better than not having a job at all.**

 

**So why do you work there?**

 

**Because Paula worked there and told me to apply.**

 

**Oh. I see.**

 

**You see?**

 

**Is Paula your roommate?**

 

Well damn, that probably isn't a good question. Ness took way too long to answer the question, overthinking his entire answer. Because he's a bumbling mess, of course.

 

**Yeah, but we're not.**

**You know.**

**She's just my friend.**

 

**Huh.**

 

**Is everything okay?**

 

**Yeah, why wouldn't it be?**

 

**Fair point, I guess.**

**Sorry I’m just paranoid about. Stuff.**

 

**That’s okay. I understand.**

 

**You do?**

 

**Yeah!**

**Sometimes, anyway.**

**I guess I shouldn’t just.**

**Never mind.**

 

**Huh?**

 

**I should go.**

**It’s getting late, and I have a class in the morning.**

**It was nice talking to you, Ness.**

 

**Nice talking to you too, Jeff.**

 

**See you around.**

 

**See ya.**

 

Ness stared at his phone for a couple of minutes, waiting for Jeff to reply, but he never did.

 

He threw his phone down on his bed, leaving to go tell Paula goodnight. She was still sitting on the couch, knitting. The TV had been turned off since Ness had frantically left.

 

“Hey, I’m going to bed.”

 

Paula turned around, “What made you get up in such a hurry?”

 

“Oh, uh,” Ness leaned up against the wall, staring at the ground. “Well you should know, since you've decided to hand out my phone number to random people.”

 

Paula gasped, sitting up on her knees and resting her arms on the back of the couch. “So he texted you!”

 

“Yeah, yeah he did.” Ness paused. “Thanks.”

 

“For giving him your number?” Paula questioned.

 

“Yeah. Really, thank you.”

 

“Hey, you need something. You need to be happy.”

 

Ness didn’t really believe it, as much as he wanted to. “Do I?”

 

“Of course you do. Everyone does.” Paula rolled her eyes, turning around again and continuing her knitting. “I’ll see you in the morning, Ness. Good night.”

 

“Night Paula.” Ness said one last time before retreating back to his room and passing out the second he laid down on his bed.


	9. Panic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Panic: Noun. sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety, often causing wildly unthinking behavior.

Jeff tried not to stare at his phone all day, which was hard to do when you wanted to talk to someone but didn't know when you could actually talk to them. It’s a very specific feeling, right when you meet someone, when you have no idea when they have time to talk to you, or when you don’t know if they even want to talk to you. It was driving Jeff crazy.

 

After Jeff got back from class, Tony was nowhere to be found, and lord knows Jeff didn’t actually feel like making any lunch, but lord knows where Tony was.

 

So he decided to be a big dumb idiot as always and text Ness.

 

**Hey, are you busy?**

**If not, do you and your roommate want to go get some lunch.**

**Or something?**

 

Much to Jeff’s surprise, it didn’t take that long to actually get a response. Not like Jeff had anything better to do than wait, but still.

 

**Huh?**

**No I’m not busy uh.**

**Let me ask Paula.**

 

Well that worked out better than he expected.

 

Ness had been sitting on the floor of Paula’s room, letting her paint his toes an alternating blue and red, when his phone went off again.

 

After checking the text, he quickly responded and then looked up at Paula. “So how long is this going to take and do you have anything to do after this?”

 

Paula finished another layer of red, setting the bottle down to switch to blue. “Maybe fifteen more minutes if I rush, why?”

 

“Do you want to go to lunch with me and Jeff?”

 

“Are you inviting me to third wheel on a date?”

 

“No, Jeff invited you, so there.” Ness flipped his phone in the air. “So do you want to go or not?”

 

“Yeah, sure, but he’s gotta wait until I’m done painting your toes.” Paula pointed with the bottle of nail polish. “But next time I’m not tagging along with you on dates.”

 

“It’s not a date!”

 

“Whatever you say, Ness.”

 

**Paula said yeah, but you’ve got to wait for her to finish painting my  
toes.**

 

**Why is she painting your toes?**

 

**We got bored I guess.**

**Do you want to come over? I have no idea how long this is  
going to take.**

 

**Sure. Where do you live?**

 

Ness sent him the address of his apartment, telling Paula she would have to answer the door unless she wanted to redo all the work she had done.

 

“Of course the one day you agree to this is the one day you have a date.”

 

“It’s not a date! It’s three semi-friends going out to lunch.”

 

“I don’t even know Jeff!” Paula set down the bottle of blue nail polish again, leaning back as she waited for the nail polish to all dry so she could put the last layer on. “He only invited me too because he’s paranoid about asking you on a date. He could barely ask me for directions to the post office the other day,”

 

“Is that when you gave him my phone number?” Ness asked, “Did you give him my phone number instead of giving him directions to the post office?”

 

Paula waved her hand dismissively, “Pssh, no of course not. I have him your phone number along with directions to the post office. It’s called ingenuity.”

 

“You are so weird, Paula.”

 

“That’s why you keep me around! Now sit still, we have to put this last layer of nail polish on so it wont chip.”

 

“How long is this going to stay on my feet?”

 

Paula shrugged, beginning to shake a bottle of clear nail polish. “As long as it wants to.”

 

Ness groaned, leaning back a bit before Paula grabbed his arm to keep him from falling back completely.

 

About ten minutes later, there was a knock at the front door. Ness’ nails were still drying, so Paula hopped up to go answer the door instead. Ness could barely hear the two talking, so he decided that nails be damned, he was going to go out there too and say hi. Or something.

 

Careful not to mess up the nail polish, Ness walked out of Paula’s room and out to the main room. He found Paula and Jeff talking right in front of the door, talking to each other.

 

Jeff’s focus shifted from Paula to Ness, waving slightly. Ness nearly died on the spot.

 

He waved back, only mildly freaking out from across the room.

 

“Hey Ness!” Paula turned to him. “So I recommended sushi, and Jeff seems to be on board, so does that work for you?”

 

“Yeah, yeah.” Ness nodded. “Sounds good.”

 

“Great!” Paula said, beginning to walk back to her room to grab her stuff, shoving Ness on the shoulder as she walked past “Now go put on some shoes or something,”

 

“Right, right. Shoes.” Ness nodded, pointing back into the hallway. “I’ll be right back.”

 

Ness walked back to his room, grabbing some shoes from under his bed and socks from a drawer, grabbing his wallet off of his dresser before he left his room and walking back out to the main room to see Paula already out there.

 

“Ready?” She looked over at him, pointing at the front door.

 

“Yeah, lets go.”

 

The three of them decided to walk, because it wasn’t that far of a walk in the first place. Paula was much better at talking to people than Ness was, and Ness was much too awkward to weasel his way into the conversation, no matter how many times Paula tried to drag him in Ness just said one or two words before dipping out of the conversation again.

 

They ended up at a conveyor belt sushi place a 15 minute walk from Ness and Paula’s apartment, sitting down by the conveyor belt to eat some sushi. Paula forcibly made Jeff and Ness sit next to each other. Ness shot Paula a dirty look, which Paula pretended not to see as she picked out some sushi.

 

“So…” Ness was painfully bad with words, and Paula jabbed Ness in the side with her elbow. “Hey!”

 

“Hey yourself?” Jeff was oblivious, wasn’t he. “Do you two get sushi often?”

 

Paula intentionally stayed quite so Ness would have to respond himself. “Uh, yeah, sometimes. It’s easier for me to make something most of the time, but occasionally we go out. Mostly for lunch I guess…”

 

“Oh, cool. Tony and I never really go out for food, but neither of us are too good at cooking. We usually just end up eating pop tarts.”

 

“Tony?”

 

“Oh, my roommate.” Jeff clarified, slightly poking at the sushi on his plate. “We’re both God awful at cooking.”

 

“Ness can cook!” Paula said, poking her head around Ness to look at Jeff.

 

Ness looked over at Paula, lowering his voice to a whisper-shout. “Paula!”

 

“I cannot cook to save my life, but Ness is amazing at it. We should have you and Tony over for dinner one night!”

 

Jeff looked between the two, noticing Ness was obviously flustered over the sudden compliment. “Oh, uh. Sure?”

 

“Great! I’m sure Ness can figure all that out, right Ness?”

 

Ness had to greatly restrain himself from hitting his head on the counter. “Yeah, I can totally do that.”

 

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to-”

 

Ness cut him off, “No, it’s fine.” Before shoving some sushi into his mouth to shut himself up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Side note: I don't know how sushi works.


	10. Comfortable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comfortable: Adjective. providing physical ease and relaxation.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. For Jeff, at least. It’s a good thing uneventful was normal for him, or he’d be getting bored. He talked to Ness on and off some, and kept trying to start a text to respond to his dad. Every time he finished it and almost hit send, he deleted it. Nothing he tried sounded truthful, or conveyed exactly what he wanted to say. So he decided not to say anything.

 

While Jeff was eating lunch, he saw his phone buzz and a text from Ness flash across the screen. He set down his fork to open up his phone and check the message.

 

**So, what is Jeff Andonuts doing right now?**

 

**Good question.**

**Eating leftovers.**

**Again.**

 

**Do you ever have fresh food?**

 

**We always make way too much.**

**Such is the curse of only living with one other person.**

**What are you doing?**

 

**At work.**

**Am bored.**

**Paula spotted me.**

 

**Maybe you shouldn’t be texting me at work.**

 

**I probably shouldn’t. But when does** **  
** **anyone have a flower emergency at 2 pm.**

 

**No clue, I wouldn’t know.**

 

**Spoiler alert: not very many people.**

 

**Shocking.**

 

**I can’t wait until baseball season starts.**

**It’ll give me something to do.**

 

**Baseball season?**

 

**Yeah, I play baseball for UCLA.**

**Lucky me I guess.**

 

**Oh! That’s so cool!**

 

**Is it really, though?**

 

**Yeah of course it is.**

 

**It’s not like. Football or anything.**

**It’s just baseball.**

 

**Well you obviously like it, if you’re playing it.**

**And you must be pretty good.**

 

**People say I’m pretty good, but I don’t know if I believe them.**

 

**Guess I’ll have to see for myself.**

 

**Have you even seen a game of baseball before?**

**Wait did that come off as rude that’s not how I meant it.**

 

**No, it didn’t come off as rude.**

**But no I haven’t.**

**Haven’t had the time, I guess. Or a reason.**

 

**Well you should go see a Dodger game some time.**

**They’re just good enough to be worth it.**

**But just bad enough to not get super bored.**

 

**I might get bored anyway, just on principle of not  
knowing what’s happening.**

 

**Fair enough.**

**They almost won the world series.**

**Then lost. So.**

**Oh well?**

 

**The what now?**

 

**The World Series. It’s the championship games for baseball.**

**Every sport has one.**

**Like, okay I’m sure you’ve heard of the super bowl.**

 

**Yes.**

 

**Right, so it’s the super bowl of baseball.**

**Except no one cares about it.**

**At least, not as much as they care about the super bowl.**

 

**I’m sure plenty of people care about the world championship.**

 

**Series.**

 

**That’s what I said.**

 

**Whatever you say.**

 

**So if it’s the world series, how come only america plays in it?**

 

**Actually, there’s a Canadian team in the MLB.**

 

**MLB?**

 

**Major League Baseball.**

 

**Oh, duh.**

 

**Yeah, the Toronto Blue Jays.They’re actually in the American League.**

 

**But they’re Canadian.**

 

**Yeah no one said this had to make sense.**

**I’ve seen them play a couple of times.**

 

**Are they any good?**

 

**I guess. No one really remembers them.**

**Their most memorable trait is that they’re canadian.**

 

**You really like baseball, don’t you?**

 

**Yeah I guess so.**

**I’ve been playing it since I was like, five.**

**And my dad really liked it, so.**

 

**Do you and your dad get along?**

 

**Can I pass on this question?**

 

**Yeah, sure.**

**Sorry.**

**I get it.**

 

**Huh?**

 

**My dad and I aren’t… super close.**

**But I guess it’s mostly my fault.**

 

**Hey, I doubt it’s your fault.**

**I mean. I don’t know anything about the situation.**

**But something's telling me that it’s not your fault.**

 

**Thanks.**

**Sorry for derailing the conversation from baseball.**

 

**Hey, I’m the one that brought up my dad.**

 

**But when you did it it was on topic.**

 

**Well you were just sticking to the topic of dads.**

 

**So do you go to baseball games often now?**

**Or do you not because you play it.**

 

**I do, sometimes.**

**Last year Paula took me to an Angels game for my birthday.**

**That was cool.**

 

**Is that another team in California?**

 

**Yeah, they’re down in Anaheim.**

 

**Where?**

 

**Oh uh.**

**Down the street from Disneyland.**

 

**Oh.**

**That’s cool!**

 

**Yeah, it was.**

**I’m. Really glad Paula’s my friend.**

**I don’t think I could tell her that but.**

**Yeah.**

**Sorry for dumping that on you.**

 

**No, it’s fine.**

**You’re fine.**

**Don’t worry about it.**

**Have you known Paula a long time?**

 

**Yeah, practically my whole life.**

**She’s certainly something else.**

**A good something else, I think.**

**Kind of like you.**

 

Jeff nearly dropped his phone into his beef stew.

What the hell did that mean? Was that good or bad? Ness just said it was bad, but hoo boy did Jeff not know how to respond. And maybe that was a little too obvious that Jeff was shocked, as if Ness could read his emotions through the phone screen.

 

**Sorry that was. Weird.**

**I’m just weirdly emotional right now I guess.**

**Thinking about baseball.**

 

**No it’s.**

**It’s okay.**

**You’re not weirdly emotional at all.**

**I think.**

**I’m a bumbling mess I’m sorry.**

 

**I just feel weird dropping all of this onto someone I met less than a week ago.**

**I barely know you yet I’m talking to you like I’ve known you for years.**

**Is that weird?**

 

**I don’t know. Do you think it’s weird?**

 

**A little.**

**But I was asking if you thought it was weird.**

 

**I don’t think it’s weird.**

 

**Well then maybe I’m just weird.**

 

**Isn’t everyone?**

 

**Fair point I guess.**

**Hate to leave our conversation like this, but I’m afraid I have to actually work** **  
** **if I want to get paid.**

**I’ll talk to you later Jeff.**

 

**Talk to you later.**

 

**Bye.**

 

**See you.**

 

**Goodbye.**

 

**Sayonara.**

 

**Au revoir.**

 

**À tout à l’heure.**

 

**Show off.**

 

**I know.**

 

Ness didn’t respond after that, probably because he actually had more important things to do than just talk with Jeff all day. Or mindlessly flirt, as Tony called it when Jeff talked about the conversation to him later. Mindlessly flirting or not, didn’t mean Jeff didn’t look forward to their conversations any time one of them had a moment to talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's more obvious, that I like baseball or that I'm from California?


	11. Worry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Worry: Verb. give way to anxiety or unease; allow one's mind to dwell on difficulty or troubles.

Paula was apparently serious about having Jeff and Tony over for dinner some time, and invited them over without actually telling Ness until the day of. So that’s how they ended up at the grocery store at 2 pm trying to quickly figure out what the heck to make for dinner.

 

“Why don’t you tell me these things!” Ness picked up a tomato and looked at it. Would he need a tomato? Maybe not for dinner tonight, but probably some time. Besides, tomatoes are good for you. “I would have liked more warning than four hours!”

 

“Because you’re too gay for your own good and would have worried too much,” Paula set a bag of potatoes into the cart Ness was pushing around. “Besides, we needed to go grocery shopping anyway.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. So what the hell am I making?” 

 

Paula shrugged, beginning to pull the cart while walking backwards. “What do you want to make?”

 

“An excuse not to cook.” Ness pushed the cart along, thinking about what wouldn’t take him too long to make. “I don’t know! Damnit, Paula.”

 

“Okay so you can either make uh… steak, I guess. That’s probably what you make best. Or meatloaf. Oh! Or chicken, I love when you make chicken, or-”

 

Ness groaned. “You are not helping.” 

 

“Well, if your goal is to impress Jeff, I’d say steak. Besides, you like it. I like it. I’m sure Jeff and Tony will like it. It’s just steak.” 

 

Ness frowned, but turned the cart in the direction of the meat counter. Paula was right. But he really didn’t want to mess this up. Maybe it was a good idea that she didn’t tell him until today, he probably would have worried about it the entire time.

 

So Ness spent the next couple of hours preparing and making dinner, while Paula tried to figure out where the hell they were all going to eat. Paula and Ness usually just ate on the couch, or the floor. They didn’t really have a table or chairs to speak of.

 

“Okay, wait, Ness,” Paula ran into the room, “What if I go run down to the Goodwill down the street and buy a table and some chairs.”

 

Ness nearly cut off one of his fingers, “Paula where would we put it?”

 

“I don’t know! But we need a table anyway!” Paula shrugged. “We can uh. Figure it out.”

 

“Paula.”

 

“Ness.” Paula rolled her eyes, heading back to her room, returning shortly with her purse and keys in hand. “I’m going anyway. Keep an eye on your phone.”

 

“Paula you are so chaotic,” Ness set down the knife he was using, watching her leave to go on the hunt for a table and chairs.

 

“I’m aware!” And there she went, the door closed behind her. 

 

Ness had the inkling of a feeling they were going to be the not so proud owner of a table and some chairs soon. 

 

Not surprising to anyone, about an hour later Paula came back home with a table and some chairs that they could, in fact, fit in their apartment without moving anything around. It just was probably a fire hazard.

 

“If the apartment ever catches on fire we’re going to need to do some hardcore parkour.” Paula pushed one of the chairs in. “But that’s okay.”

 

“I can’t believe if the apartment ever catches on fire I’m going to burn to death.” Ness had resigned to sitting on the floor in the kitchen, waiting for the oven to heat up. 

 

Paula shook her head. “They’re going to be here in an hour, do you need any help?”

 

“Haha, no.” Ness stood up again, checking the oven temperature. “You already went and bought us a table what else do we really need?” 

 

“I don’t know, food might be nice.” 

 

Ness grabbed some scissors, cutting open the bag of potatoes. “I’ll consider it. Now shoo! Go away or you’ll curse the food.”

 

Paula laughed, turning to head back to her room. “Okay, okay. I’ll leave you alone now.”   

 

About an hour later, Jeff and Tony showed up. They knocked on the door, and instead of answering it like a sensible person, Ness yelled for Paula to answer it.

 

“You’re right there you utter buffoon!” Paula nearly ran into the table, not quite used to it being there. “God, I forgot we had that.”

 

“I will forever blame you every time I stub my toe, even if it’s not on that.” Ness pointed at the door. “Door.”

 

“I am aware of the door, thank you very much.” Paula walked over to the door, opening it up to find Jeff and Tony. Which was expected, as they were supposed to be there. “Hey! Come in, Ness is just being lazy.”

 

“I’m not being lazy! I’m cooking dinner thank you very much!” Ness shouted from the kitchen.

 

“He’s being lazy.” Paula stepped out of the way so Jeff and Tony could actually enter the apartment. “Come on in.”

 

Jeff was obviously taken aback by the random table, and Ness had to try and keep a straight face while explaining it.

 

“We didn’t own a table, and Paula didn’t want us eating on the floor as per usual.” 

 

“Well the as per usual for us is the couch.” Paula shut the door. “But that’s not the best place to actually eat dinner.”

 

“We’re functioning adults, as you can tell.” Ness went back to working on the dinner.

 

Tony found the whole thing amusing. “Well you went out and bought a table, that’s got to count for something.”

 

Jeff looked over at Tony, then at Ness. “Oh, right, hey Ness this is Tony. I don’t actually think you two have met.” 

 

Ness looked up again, giving Tony a small wave. “Hello, welcome to my dysfunctional home.” 

 

Tony gave a smile and a wave back. “Thanks for having me, looks like I’ll fit right in.” 

 

Dinner, surprisingly to Ness, went off without a hitch. Despite how opposed to the idea Ness was a first, he actually ended up having somewhat of a good time. He found himself staring at Jeff occasionally, and it didn’t help that Paula had decided she was going to become best friends with Tony and talk to him the entire time. Which was fine with Ness, it means he didn’t have to socialize as much, but it did feel weird not talking at all. Usually it was just him and Paula. He liked the change of pace, though. Regardless of the random new table and sudden new friends.

 

“If I knew you cooked that well, I would have stopped trying to make food by now.” Jeff said, starting to wash off a plate. He had offered to do the dishes, even though Ness had protested and said he could do them himself. 

 

“Oh, uh, thanks.” Ness had haphazardly cleaned up the mess he made trying to cook the dinner earlier, so was now dealing with the consequences. “Thanks for coming over.”

 

“Anytime. I think I would probably die for that food.” Jeff stacked up plates on the counter. “Like, if I was on death row for some reason and had to request a last meal, I think I’d specifically request something you made.”

 

Ness laughed. “Is that a thing? Can they do that?”

 

Jeff shrugged. “No clue. Doesn’t hurt to try though.”

 

“Well, you don’t have to kill a man for my cooking. You and Tony can come over any time.” Ness balled up the hand towel he used to wipe down the counter, setting it down. “Or, I guess just you. Tony doesn’t need to come over. And you don’t need to come over for dinner.” 

 

Jeff looked over at Ness, who looked obviously flustered. “Huh?”

 

“Uh, nevermind. Forget I said anything.”

 

“If you wanted to hang out, you could have just said so.” Jeff picked up the stack of plates, opening up the dishwasher. “It’s boring just talking with someone over text.”

 

Ness blinked. “You know phones have a phone call function, right.”

 

Jeff laughed, putting the plates inside the dishwasher. “Yeah, I know. I like talking to people in person.” 

 

“R-right. Makes sense.”

 

Jeff closed the dishwasher, crossing his arms and looking at Ness. “Is everything okay?”

 

Ness nodded. “Of course, why wouldn’t they be?”

 

“You seem nervous all of a sudden that it’s just us.” 

 

Ness hadn’t even realized Paula and Tony had disappeared, lord knows where they could have gone, their apartment wasn’t that big. “Oh. Uh, well I’m not nervous.”

 

“Right.” Jeff looked around the room. “Well, I’ll take you up on your offer then. No promises I’ll end up showing up at a time you’re actually home, though. I still don’t know that much about you.”

 

“I think you’ll figure it out.” Ness said. 

 

“I hope so.”


	12. Excitement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Excitement: Noun. a feeling of great enthusiasm and eagerness.

Jeff was extremely tired when he got home, nearly deciding to just fall asleep on the couch instead of dragging himself back to his room.

 

“Well that was fun.” Tony closed the door, turning on a light. “I’m never eating your cooking ever again, by the way. Ness ruined it for me.”

 

Jeff had fallen face first on the couch, and held up a thumbs up for Tony to see.

 

“He’s cute though, I can see why you like him.” Tony kicked off his shoes, sending them flying towards the kitchen. “You should have kissed him.”

 

Jeff sat up again. “Excuse me?”

 

“Him. You. Kiss. Boom, fireworks.” Tony did some jazz hands.

 

“Oh my God I wasn’t going to just kiss him!” Jeff buried his face in the couch again. “I’m hopeless.”

 

“You’re not hopeless!” Tony paused. “Okay, you’re a hopeless romantic, but he obviously likes you. You two should just. Hang out. Start dating. Probably get married at some point.”

 

“You’re already planning my wedding?”

 

“Jeff I’ve had your wedding planned since we were 10.”  Tony walked over to the couch, grabbing Jeff’s arm and trying to pull him up. “Hey. Get up you are not sleeping on the couch in your clothes, come on.”

 

“Mmmmm, but what if I want to sleep on the couch in my clothes?” Jeff did get up however, not super thrilled about having to walk an extra ten feet to his bed. “Why does he have to be so cute AND good at cooking? The world is cruel and unfair.”

 

Tony nudged him away from the couch. “I don’t know, why don’t you ask the world itself.”

 

Jeff rolled his eyes. “Pick up your shoes, I don’t want to trip on one of them in the morning.”

 

“Never.” Tony pushed him towards his room. “Go sleep, sweet dreams.”

 

Now Jeff really did plan to sleep, but just as he was ready to actually get into bed he heard his phone ding.

 

**Thanks for coming over.**

**I mean I already said that earlier but.**

**Yeah.**

 

**No problem. Like I said, I’ll come over any time.**

**You make good food anyway, so it’s worth it.**

 

**Glad to see all my friends use me for my cooking.**

**Real talk though, it’s nice to have company other than Paula.**

**She’s great and all, don’t get me wrong.**

**But I dunno. You’re great too.**

 

It was way too late and Jeff was way too tired to actually make an attempt to process what the hell Ness just said, so he opted to ignore it. It probably didn’t mean anything anyway.

 

**Like I said, willing to come over any time.**

**Not even for food.**

**Maybe just to do homework or something.**

 

**Are you trying to ask me out on a casual date, Jeff Andonuts?**

 

**What if I am?**

 

**Well I’d probably say yes.**

**For future reference.**

 

Now Jeff just about screamed, but he was supposed to be asleep. So instead he ran out of his room to go yell at Tony.

 

“Jeff what the hell are you still doing awake?”

 

“Tony Tony Tony I don’t know how to process and form words right now but I think Ness likes me.”

 

Tony gave Jeff a very confused look. “What the hell are you trying to say? Go to bed.”

 

That was a fair reaction, but it didn’t stop Jeff from being a little too excited over a single text. “Right, okay, goodnight Tony.”

 

“Goodnight, Jeff.”

 

Jeff went back to his room, laid down on his bed staring up at the ceiling. He felt like a 16 year old from one of those silly high school drama movies.

 

**Really?**

 

**Sorry, was that weird?**

 

**No not at all I’m just surprised is all.**

**So uh.**

**What about Monday at 3?**

 

**Monday at 3 sounds great.**

 

**Great!**

 

**Guess it’s a date then.**

 

**Yeah, guess so.**

**I better get to bed.**

 

**Same here.**

**Good talking to you as always.**

 

**Same to you.**

 

**Bonne nuit, garçon britannique.**

 

**That’s the silliest nickname I’ve ever seen.**

**Bonne nuit, garçon américain.**

 

**Right back at you.**

 

Jeff turned off his phone, plugging it in before he drifted off to sleep, not even aware that there was a smile on his face.


	13. Happiness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happiness: Noun. the state of being happy.

Jeff and Ness ended up sitting on the floor of the living room in Ness’ apartment, Ness leaning up against the couch and trying his best to read the book he had to read for english lit, Jeff a couple feet away doing a report or something. Ness wasn’t actually too sure.

 

“I’m a godawful reader,” Ness closed the book, dropping it in his lap. “I give up! I’m never finishing this book, am I?”

 

Jeff looked up from what he was doing. “Do you want to take a break? That might help, instead of just giving up.”

 

“I don’t know, I just can’t focus on the book or what I’m supposed to be reading. I always lose my place.”

 

“Have you tried an audiobook?” Jeff suggested.

 

“Yeah, but I want to actually _read_ it.” Ness looked at the book and sighed. “So I just give up instead.”

 

Jeff laughed “Okay, well then let's talk, if you’re not going to read.”

 

“What do you want to talk about?”

 

“Let’s see…” Jeff closed his books, setting them to the side. “You play baseball, right?”

 

“Yeah, I’m a catcher.” Ness sat up a little. “I have practice later today if you want to come watch.”

 

“I can just do that?”

 

“Yeah, Paula comes all the time. She just sits in the dugout and does homework,” Ness pointed at the books Jeff just set aside. “She did it in highschool too, so I guess she either really likes baseball or wants to make me not feel lonely.”

 

“Okay then, next question. What's your favorite team?”

 

Ness blinked back at Jeff, confused. “Huh?”

 

“Baseball team." Jeff clarified "Which is your favorite?”

 

“Oh, uh,” Ness laughed awkwardly, looking back down at his book. “Well I’m from Washington, so I grew up seeing Mariners games, but I’ve always liked the Red Sox a lot more.” Ness briefly lifted his hat off his head, showing a faded Red Sox logo before setting it back on his head. “It’s where my favorite colors come from.”

 

“You’re from Washington? The capitol?”

 

“Oh! No, Washington State. It borders Canada on the West Coast.” Ness readjusted his hat. “We have fish and coffee.”

 

“Paula’s from there too, right?” Jeff was just full of different questions, as per usual “So you and her grew up together?”

 

“No, not exactly. I met her when I was like, I wanna say 13? Maybe 12. I don’t know, but I tripped on something and spilled my lunch on her. It was… awkward and terrifying, but she was surprisingly okay with it.”

 

Jeff laughed “So that’s how you make friends? Throw food at them?”

 

“I guess so, but I’ve only really ever made two friends in my life up until now, so I wouldn’t really come to me for any advice.” Ness smiled a bit “How did you meet Tony?”

 

“We went to the same boarding school, we were roommates then, and we’re roommates now. He’s… basically my brother, I guess. His mom refers to me as her other son.”

 

“Aw, that’s sweet.”

 

“When school let out for holiday I’d stay with him and his mom, we did that for… what, 8 years? So we’ve been roommates for a long time, technically.”

 

“Why didn’t you go home?”

 

Jeff shrugged. “I wasn’t wanted around, I guess. One day my dad never picked me up, Tony and his mom stayed waiting with me for hours until she just took me with her.”

 

Ness couldn’t believe it. “He forgot about you?”

 

“I don’t know, I think my best guess was that he just didn’t know. He didn’t really… care all that much. Or maybe he just wasn’t in the country at the time. No idea.”

 

“That doesn’t just make it okay that he left you there!”

 

“It really doesn’t matter.” Jeff quickly tried to change the subject back to baseball. “So, what time does your practice start?”

 

“Uh…” Ness took a quick look at his phone to check the time, “Thirty minutes?”

 

“Thirty minutes?”

 

Ness threw his phone at Jeff, quickly standing up and running back to his room. “Yeah I’m screwed it’s fine don’t worry.”

 

“Ness, I’m worrying!” Jeff put his books back in his backpack, standing up just as Ness ran back into the room carrying his baseball bag.

 

“Hope you don't mind the rush.”

 

“It’s exciting.” Jeff said, handing Ness back his phone.

 

“I’m not usually this late.” Ness half pushed Jeff out of his apartment “And usually I walk, but that’s not really an option right now, so sorry you’re going to have to deal with my car.”

 

“Deal?” Jeff just let Ness lead him to wherever they needed to go. He found the situation amusing, if anything.

 

Ness ended up barely making it on time, and apparently the rest of the team had thought he died.

 

Jeff just stood around awkwardly, not sure what to do until one of the other players came up to him.

 

“So you’re Paula’s replacement?”

 

Jeff was confused, both by what he meant and the fact that he just started talking to him. “Excuse me?”

 

“Oh, sorry, hey I’m Diego.” Diego did a two fingered salute as a wave. “Ness usually brings Paula to practice, that’s what I meant.”

 

“Jeff, it’s nice to meet you.”

 

“Likewise.” Diego turned to the rest of the team, who were mostly idling around waiting for Ness to get changed. “Hey! This is Jeff, he’s apparently not Paula’s replacement I dunno.”

 

The team all waved and said various forms of ‘hi’. It was weird, Jeff felt so welcomed for having just crashed a baseball practice.

 

“Okay quick rundown,” Diego started pointing to each player as he named them. “Ryan, Victoriano, Julian, Barry, Mateo, Ronnie, Miguel, Andrew, Josh, Jayden, Gabriel, Michael, Max, Sergio, and Francisco. I think that’s everyone.”

 

“I don’t think I’ll remember all of that.”

 

“You’ll figure it out.” Diego reassured, patting his shoulder. “Ness must like you a lot if he’s taking you to stuff he usually takes Paula to, I’m guessin’ we’re gonna be seeing you a lot more often.”

 

Jeff honestly had no idea what any of them were doing, he still didn’t understand baseball at all. It was interesting to watch, though. He didn’t get any work done, though, instead spending the entire time watching the team practice.

 

Based on what he knew about baseball he didn’t actually expect it to be that physically demanding like football (both American and normal), and it wasn’t quite as much, but there still was a lot of running Jeff didn’t expect. So he just watched and took notes.

 

By the time everyone was done, it was dark out.

 

“Hey, sorry about just. Whisking you off to baseball land. I’ll buy you dinner or something to make it up to you.” Ness threw his bag into his car.

 

“You don’t have to do that, I actually liked it. It’s interesting.”

 

“Interesting? If you think us fucking around is interesting, wait until you see a real game.” Ness laughed. “It doesn’t matter if I have to or not, I’m still buying you dinner.”

 

Jeff started to protest “But-”

 

“We’re still technically on a date, aren’t we?”

 

Jeff smiled “Okay, fine, I guess you’re right.”

 

“Hell yes, burger time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I did create an entire baseball team. Yes, they are going to be important to the story. No, I do not have any regrets.


	14. Bet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bet: Verb. risk something, usually a sum of money, against someone else's on the basis of the outcome of a future event, such as the result of a race or game.

Paula was bored. Ness’ last day for a couple months was yesterday, so she now had a new coworker. Not like it was that big of a deal, he wasn’t mean or anything, he was just. Interesting.

 

“So, you’re Lucas’ older brother?”

 

“We’re twins, but yeah, by like thirty minutes.” 

 

“So his name is an anagram of yours?”

 

Claus stared at Paula for a moment. “What point are you trying to get at, exactly.”

 

“I’m trying to make small talk, carrot top.” Paula tapped her fingers on the counter impatiently. “So do you go to college around here?”

 

“Nope.”

 

“What do you do then?”

 

“I’m in the National Guard.” Claus just stared at the door. “Any more questions?”

 

Before Paula could open her mouth, the bell rang alerting that someone had entered the flower shop.

 

“Hello welcome to the Bloom Room,” Paula waved at the person as she turned to look at them and- oh. Oh no he’s cute.

 

Claus was really indifferent about the whole situation and just waved to the customer as well, not saying a word. So much for good customer service, like they ever had any of that in the first place.

 

“Hey, flower shop right?” The customer looked around the shop, his eyes landing on Paula. 

 

“Y-Yes, yeah we. Certainly sell flowers what do you need?”

 

“My friend is flying in today and I wanted to get them some flowers.” The customer kept looking at Paula. “Do you have anything you’d recommend?”

 

“Lilies! Uh, I mean-” Paula glared at Claus when she heard him start laughing. “Lilies. Are good.”

 

“Sounds good to me.” 

 

Paula nearly whacked Claus in the shoulder as she went to get the lilies she had recommended, wrapping them up for him. As she rung him up, she quickly pulled out a pad of paper and scribbled her name and number down on it, folding it up and giving it to him with his change.

 

“My name is Paula, by the way.”

 

“Kato.” He smiled, taking the paper. “It’s nice to meet you.”

 

“Yeah, nice to meet you too.” 

 

The door shut behind him as he left, and Claus couldn’t help but laugh. “You fell faster than a domino, what gives?”

 

“What gives?” Paula shut the cash register. “What do you mean what gives? He’s cute!”

 

“He’s cute and  _ also _ probably taken. He’s buying flowers for his ‘friend’.” Claus put friend in air quotes. 

 

“Well let’s give it some time.”

 

“Wanna bet on it?” 

 

Paula raised an eyebrow. “Do you?”

 

“Twenty bucks says he’s taken.” Claus stuck his hand out for Paula to shake. 

 

“Twenty bucks says he’s not, then.” Paula shook his hand.

  
  


After Poo picked Annika up from the airport, she just had to know why he was nervously glancing at his phone every two minutes.

 

“Your highness I’ve been here maybe an hour and you’ve looked at that phone more than me.” Annika ate another french fry. “What’s wrong?”

 

“Rule number one of you moving to America is you can’t go around calling me ‘your highness’.” 

 

“Alright then, your idiocy, why do you keep looking at your phone.” Annika pointed at the phone on the table. “What’s up.”

 

“The girl who sold me those flowers gave me her number.” 

 

Annika’s eyes widened. “Bold move on her part. Did you text her? Do you  _ want _ to text her?”

 

“No and yes.” Poo glanced at his phone again. “I have something written but not sent, I guess.” 

 

Annika reached forward and yanked his phone, opening it and sending the message that Poo had typed out.

 

“Hey!” Poo grabbed the phone back, but the text was already sent. “That’s punishable by a fine, you know.”

 

“Not in America it isn’t!” Annika ate another french fry. “I like it here already.”

  
  


**Hey, is this Paula? It’s Kato. I bought those flowers.**

 

Ness noticed the text alert on Paula’s phone as they were eating an extremely late dinner. “Who’s Kato?”

 

Paula quickly scrambled to pick up her phone, nearly spilling soup on herself in the process. “No one!”

 

Ness snorted “Not by that reaction it’s not. Who are they?”

 

“I- truth be told I’m not quite sure, all I know is he has a friend that he was picking up from the airport today. And at least has a phone number from LA.” Paula looked at the area code for a second before actually saving the number as a contact. “Unlike you I’m not afraid to give people my phone number if I think they’re cute.”

 

“You’re obviously not afraid to give out my phone number either.

 

**Yeah it’s Paula.**

**I’m surprised you texted me**

 

**You are?**

 

**Well yeah I guess so.**

 

**You thought by friend I mean girlfriend didn’t you?**

 

**Maybe.**

**Or boyfriend, I don’t judge.**

 

**Well I don’t have either of those.**

  
  


“Claus owes me twenty bucks.” Paula said, holding her phone up to Ness.

 

“Because that’s the important part of this conversation so far.” 

 

**Good to know.**

 

**Weird question but.**

**Are you busy on Saturday?**

 

“Ness are you busy on Saturday?”

 

Ness grabbed her bowl of soup from her, taking it with his plate to the kitchen. “You can go on a date, I won’t mind.”

 

**Nope.**

 

**Awesome.**

**I mean.**

**Yeah. Awesome.**

**Does uh. A movie sound good?**

 

**Movie sounds great.**

 

**Great!**

**See you then.**

 

“Ness I beat you at the dating game.”

 

Ness laughed. “Good, now you don’t have to be all lonely when Jeff and I go out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annika is a throwaway character I usually use as a Dalaamese friend for Poo. She'll be hanging around.


	15. Radiant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Radiant: Adjective. sending out light; shining or glowing brightly.

Jeff had been called over by Ness, telling him that he needed help with dealing with Paula. Whatever the heck that meant.

 

“Hey, try not to trip on a shoe,” Ness opened the door for Jeff, who didn’t quite understand why Ness had said that until nearly tripped on a shoe. “Told you.”

 

“Why are there shoes on the floor out here?” Jeff picked up the shoe he nearly on, looking at it. “Is this Paulas?”

 

Ness shut the door behind them. “Yeah, she has a date.” 

 

“Oooh.” Jeff set the shoe down by the door, out of the way of anyone else that would walk in. “Why are her shoes out here, then?”

 

“She kicked them off and never picked them back up.” Ness shrugged. “Apparently she’s supposed to be leaving in 15 minutes, and she’s been tearing her closet apart for an hour.” 

 

“She must really like this guy.” 

 

Ness laughed. “I have no idea who he is, I just know his name. Kaaaaato.” He dragged out the ‘a’ sound, leaning up against the wall by the door.

 

“Kato… Kato.” Jeff thought about the name, repeating it over a few times. “Weird, I think I’ve heard the name before. What’s with everyone in America having abnormal names.”

 

“Hey, my name is not abnormal.” 

 

“Name one other person named Ness.”

 

Before Ness could answer (not like he had heard of another person named Ness), Paula walked back out into the living room. “Hey Pau, did you finally pick something?”

 

Jeff looked over at Paula, who’s hair was tied up into a ponytail with a white ribbon, curled at the ends. Wearing a pink and white three quarter sleeve shirt, nice looking skinny jeans, and red flats. “I didn’t even know you owned pants.”

 

“Very funny,” Paula looked down at her outfit. “I don’t know if I like it.”

 

Ness rolled his eyes. “You’ve said that about everything you put on today, you look fine. Stop worrying about it. It’s a movie, not prom.” 

 

“Okay but-”

 

“But nothing!” Another knock at the door. “Let’s play the ‘who is it?’ game. Which is something I never thought we’d be able to do before, but apparently now we have friends. Wonderful development.”

 

“Wait!” Paula ran over to the door, picking up the shoes that were by the door before throwing them behind the couch. “Okay.”

 

Jeff’s eyes followed the shoes as they flew over the couch. “What the heck did I get myself in to.”

 

“That’s a question I ask myself every day,” Ness opened up the door, kind of surprised to see someone he didn’t know standing there before he remembered why Paula was so anxious. Right. “Well you’re tall.”

 

“Or maybe you’re just short.” Random door person sounded nervous too. “Does uh. Paula live here?”

 

“Yeah, come in.” Ness stepped out of the way. “I’m guessing you’re Kato. I’m Ness, I’m Paula’s roommate.”

 

“It’s nice to meet you.” Kato stepped inside the apartment, looking around for Paula, only to find Jeff. “How many people live here?”

 

“Just two.” Paula said. “That’s Jeff, he’s British.”

 

“Because that’s my only character trait, apparently.” 

 

“It’s the most obvious one, that’s for sure.” Paula turned to Kato. “Hey.” 

 

“Hey.” Kato stared at her for a moment. “Are you, uh, ready to go?”

 

“Yeah- yeah let’s go.” 

 

Ness kept holding the door open with his foot. “If anything happens to her just remember that I have a batting average of 300.”

 

“And I’m a black belt in taekwondo.” Kato smirked. “Nothing’s going to happen to her.”

 

Jeff tried, but failed to hold in a laugh, gaining himself a look from Ness.

 

“I’ll be fine Ness. See you later.”

 

“Later? When is later!”

 

“Later is later!” Paula grabbed Kato’s wrist, dragging him out of the apartment with her. “Bye Ness, bye Jeff!”

 

Ness closed the door behind them, turning to Jeff. “Thoughts?”

 

“He’s cute.” Jeff shrugged. 

 

“Jeff! Not what I meant!” Ness groaned, sitting on the ground in front of the door. 

 

Jeff sat down with him. “I mean, he looks familiar. But I have no idea where I’ve seen him before.”

 

“Maybe you saw him on a wanted poster.”

 

“I think I’d remember someone I saw on a wanted poster, Ness.” Jeff checked the time on his phone. “Have you eaten yet?”

 

“Dinner?”

 

“At all.” 

 

Ness thought for a moment. “Nope, don’t think so.”

 

“Ness!” 

 

“I was at practice all day!” Ness held his hands up defensively. “I’m more worried about Paula-”

 

“Don’t worry about Paula, jeez. Get up. I owe you dinner.” Jeff stood up, holding his hand out to Ness.

 

Ness took it, standing up. “You don’t owe me dinner.”

 

“Yes I do, as of right now.” Jeff pushed Ness towards his door “C’mon, put on a jacket. I’m taking you to dinner.”

 

“I would have said yes if you just asked, you know.”

 

“Well that’s no fun!”

  
  


When Paula got home later that night, she found Ness and Jeff passed out on the couch. She laughed, tempted to wake them up and tell her that she was home, but she opted to leave Ness a post-it note on his forehead instead.

 

“Made it home alright. I hope you didn’t worry about me too much. - Paula”

 

After she finished leaving the note, she floated off to her room to go to bed. As she plugged in her phone to charge, she found a new message.

 

**Had a great time tonight. Thanks for coming to the movie.**

 

**Me too. Thanks for inviting me.**

 

**Does that mean you’d see another?**

 

**With you? Any time.**

 

Paula pulled her hair out of the ponytail, falling asleep the second her head hit the pillow. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kato is Poo btw I don't know if that's quite obvious.


	16. Frustration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Frustration. Noun. the feeling of being upset or annoyed, especially because of inability to change or achieve something.

Ness woke up on the couch, still in his clothes from the day before. His signature baseball hat had fallen off his head and onto the ground, and Jeff was laying half next to him, half on top of him. What the heck.

 

Ness rubbed his eyes, slightly poking at Jeff’s shoulder to try and wake him up. “Hey. Hey Jeff. Jeff wake up.”

 

No dice. 

 

Ness felt around the couch for his phone, opening it up and pulling up YouTube before placing the phone by Jeff’s ear and blasting the most recent song in his watch history.

 

Jeff just about hit Ness in the face, quickly sitting up. “What the hell was that for?”

 

“You wouldn’t get up, and you were kind of laying on top of me.” Ness sat up as well, turning his phone back off. “Morning.”

 

“Good morning,” Jeff blinked, looking around for his glasses. “What even was that that you just played.”

 

Ness found them on the nearby coffee table, grabbing them and handing them to Jeff. “What do you mean? That was Elvis!”

 

“Who?” Jeff put his glasses on, staring blankly back at Ness.

 

“Oh my God are you serious?” 

 

“Why would I lie to you about my taste in music, I’m not that desperate.” 

 

Ness rolled his eyes, grabbing his hat off the ground and setting it on his head before getting off the couch. “King of Rock? Elvis Presley! Ringing any bells?”

 

“Nope.” Jeff leaned against the arm of the couch, watching Ness. 

 

“Come on! That’s like me saying I don’t know Queen or the Beatles.” 

 

Jeff gawked. “No, it’s not, because they have amazing music. Besides, not all British people like Queen and the Beatles.”

 

“Do you like Queen and the Beatles.”

 

A pause. “Okay well that’s a bad example, my POINT is that I don’t assume all Americans like. Uh. Fall Out Boy?”

 

“You don’t know any American bands do you.” Ness began walking towards the kitchen before he heard his phone rang, promptly turning himself around and going back to the couch, picking up his phone, and answering it. “Hello?”

 

“I know one! Wait, is Fall Out Boy not American?” Jeff was promptly cut off by a phone ringing, so he shut himself up while Ness answered it. Ness’ paled reaction to whoever was on the other end of the line did not go unnoticed.

 

“Oh, uh, hey dad. No it’s not a bad time I just woke up- right yeah. Yeah, I have. No, not really. Oh, is it? I kinda forgot- no that’s not necessary!” A pause. “Yeah, of course. Tell mom and Tracy I say hi. Yeah, I’ll tell her. Bye dad.” Ness threw his phone back on the couch after he hung up.

 

“Your dad?” Jeff stared at the phone a moment. 

 

Ness nodded. “Yeah.”

 

“What was the call about?”

 

“My birthday,” Ness sounded disinterested at best, aggravated at worst.

 

“It's your birthday?”

 

“No, my birthday is next month.”

 

“Oh. So why’d he call you then?” Jeff’s had his father forget his birthday, but misremember is a completely different thing.

 

“It’s not really important.”

 

“It seems to be bothering you.”

 

“Yeah, and I don’t want to bother you.”

 

“You’re not bothering me, I’m the one asking.”

 

Ness faltered. “Okay, well, he wanted to come down to California with my sister and spend time with me for my birthday. There we go, there’s it all.”

 

“Oh,” Jeff couldn’t quite relate to being annoyed that a parent wanted to spend time with him, but he was sure Ness had a reason to be upset. “Are you going to let him?”

 

“I mean, I’d love to see Tracy. I only see her over the summers when she visits with another friend.” Ness began heading into the kitchen again, opening up a cabinet and taking out a loaf of bread. “Do you want any toast?”

 

“Tracy is your sister?” Jeff sat on his knees, looking over the couch and into the kitchen. “Uh, sure. Thanks.”

 

“No problem.” Ness grabbed four slices of bread, putting them in the toaster and pulling himself up on the kitchen counter while the bread toasted. “Tracy is my sister, yeah. We don’t really look alike- she looks more like my mom, I look more like my dad. But I love her to death.”

 

“That’s sweet. I’m an only child- which is probably good, all things considered. But that’s a can of worms we probably shouldn’t get into at uh. Eight in the morning?”

 

“Is it really that early?” Ness glanced over to the clock on the stove. Yup. 8:30. “Jeez, why the heck did my dad think I’d be up at 8:30 in the morning?”

 

Jeff just shrugged right as the toast popped out of the toaster. 

 

Ness grabbed two plates, throwing the toast haphazardly onto them before walking back over to the couch and handing Jeff one of them. “I don’t even know if we have butter, and honestly I’m really not in the mood to go back and check. I don’t think we have any, though. We need to go to the store.”

 

“What have you been eating if you need to go to the store?” Jeff took the plate, setting it on his lap. 

 

Ness walked around the couch, sitting down and putting his plate next to him. “What we grew up on. Hamburgers and pizza.”

 

“Americans are so weird.” Jeff took a bite of the toast. “How do you manage to even make dry toast taste good?”

 

“I think at this point it’s just a placebo, you expect everything I make to be amazing so it just tastes better. I could probably open a can of spam and drop it in a bowl and hand it to you and you’d think it’s the best dish ever.” 

 

Jeff raised an eyebrow “Spam? Isn’t that the meat in a can?” 

 

“Yeah, it’s disgusting, don’t try it.” Ness picked up a piece of toast and took a bite.

 

“Good to note, then.”


End file.
